Current land value spike not like the 80s

Farmland values have been increasing rapidly, giving rise to concern that the industry is due to repeat the credit crisis that happened in the 1980s. However, Mike Duffy, Iowa State University economist doesn’t foresee a collapse of prices like what occurred in the 80s, according to an article from Iowa Farmer Today.

The article says Duffy believes today’s farmland value increase is different than the run up in prices that occurred in the late 1970s before the market crashed in the 1980s. He does not rule out that changes could still occur in the market, but the difference he sees is that more land is being purchased today with cash than in the 1970s.

“Even though farmland prices are going up across the country, the increase is not uniform,” Duffy told Iowa Farmer Today.